In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’” Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt…

In 1921 Lewis Lawes became the warden at New York’s infamous Sing Sing Penitentiary. No prison in the country was tougher with more incidents of violence recorded during the period, but when Warden Lawes retired some twenty years later, Sing Sing had become a humanitarian institution. Those who studied prison reform in the period gave the credit for the institution’s turn around…